Ex-FIFA Official Jack Warner Hits Soccer Body for Bin Hammam Ban

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Warner, the former FIFA vice
president who quit soccer’s governing body amid a bribery
investigation, applauded the top sports court’s decision to
overturn former Asian soccer head Mohamed Bin Hammam’s life ban.

Warner said in an e-mailed statement that the decision by
the Lausanne, Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport
was “a victory of reason over allegations and mud-throwing.”

The 63-year-old Bin Hamman was incumbent Sepp Blatter’s
sole opponent in last year’s presidential election before
quitting a day before soccer’s governing body launched a probe
into allegations he tried to bribe Caribbean voters at a meeting
arranged by Warner with $40,000 stuffed into envelopes. Blatter
was elected to a fourth four-year term on June 1, 2011.

“FIFA’s reprehensible conduct with regard to Mohamed bin
Hammam has been unmasked, its rulings against him were declared
null and void,” Warner wrote. “The question can be asked as to
how I would have fared under this FIFA system of injustice.”

FIFA banned 11 officials, reprimanded five more and warned
six following its investigation into a specially convened
meeting of the Caribbean Football Union in Trinidad on May 10,
2011. CAS said two days ago there was “insufficient evidence”
for FIFA to expel Bin Hammam, though it did not say that meant
he was innocent of the charges.

CAS said it found that Bin Hammam was “more likely than
not the source” of the money and that his efforts “in
collaboration with and most likely induced by Mr. Warner” may
not have complied with the highest ethical standards in sports.

Forensic Audit

The day before the court announced its decision to overturn
Bin Hammam’s year-old ban, FIFA announced it had extended a
separate 30-day ban imposed on the businessman by Asian soccer
to a worldwide one. The AFC said it found irregularities in its
finances after accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
carried out a forensic audit of its books.

The audit dated July 13 was critical of Bin Hammam’s
conduct. It said he used the soccer confederation’s bank account
as though it was his own, and detailed several payments to
officials including Warner. It said Warner was paid sums
totaling $250,000. Neither Warner nor Bin Hammam has responded
to questions about the report. Bin Hammam said yesterday his aim
was to quit soccer once he’d cleared his name.

The PwC report said the former AFC head spent $700,000 from
the soccer body’s accounts on himself and his family, including
the purchase of $10,000 on a watch made by Bulgari SpA for
himself and nearly $5,000 in cosmetic dentistry for one of his
daughters. The 56-page summary also listed about a $2,000 outlay
on 14 shirts for Blatter.

AFC Meeting

FIFA expressed concern at the CAS decision to rule against
its ethics committee’s decision in the Bin Hammam case. Warner
alleged the Zurich-based body’s head of legal affairs traveled
to meet with AFC officials in Kuala Lumpur days before Bin
Hammam’s latest ban.

“What role did FIFA’s chief legal officer play in this
move?” Warner asked in his statement. “Why was he in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia? Why now? And why did FIFA’s disciplinary
committee nigh-immediately adopt the AFC decision of a ban and
make it global? Based on what shoddy legal criteria did this
ruling happen?”

CAS said it would be possible to reopen the case if
evidence related to events in the Caribbean was found by FIFA’s
new independent investigators. FIFA two days ago named former
U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia as head investigator for its
restructured ethics committee.